How are you staying in touch with family?

My 2 youngest grandchildren are 140 miles away. I am very fortunate to see them almost every day on video calls. Sometimes more than once a day, they might phone again if they want to show me something they’re doing.

I write to them weekly and post them little treats. They write little notes to me and post me their drawings. I put them on the wall and show them my gallery on FaceTime.

Also, a couple of evenings a week I read their bedtime stories when they’re tucked up in bed.

My 2 oldest grandchildren live 9 miles away. I live alone and would be within the guidelines to form an extended household with them and visit their home. But we’re going with the “just because it’s allowed it doesn’t mean it’s safe” approach. We meet up in a large park for walks and keep a safe distance.

I know I am fortunate to have the contact I do have with my GC and even in pre covid days so many grandparents are far apart from their’s. But oh how I yearn for a hug!

Thanks to daily FaceTime chats I see far more of my grandchildren now than I did before the arrival of the virus. I have three grandchildren under the age of four and calling granny has become a natural part of their day. One takes his phone to his dad with an instruction to call me as soon as he gets home from nursery and he chats to me about his day whilst showing me whichever plaything he has on the go. Another regularly chats to me at bath time and the third comes and goes when I’m chatting to his mummy.

The older grandchildren (Primary school age) are prolific readers and we enjoy chatting about what they’re reading and which books they’d like to read next.

Two of our children arrange a time to ‘meet’ with us on Zoom and we all get takeaways and share the meal together, and about twice a month my husband meets in the same way with our sons to play games online - currently it’s Battleships.

Recently the whole family got together on Zoom to celebrate our grandson’s 11th birthday - uncles, aunties, cousins, grandparents and great grandparents - it was such fun we’re doing it again for the next child’s birthday.

We dont have a special time so its all a bit as and when. I have never been on zoom, but we do fb and messenger. Who is that the old crone i see on that screen. Surely it cant be me.
My gc are now 8 and 11 and the younger has never hung around to talk, now he gas found these silly faces or ears etc he just spends his time messing about. My gd is better, but its nowhere near as good as being together. We are being very careful as we are in an area with very high rates, so dont know how long that will be.

Our DGD likes to have the phone to herself and takes us up to her bedroom. She is only 5 and her parents always want to know what secrets she has been telling us.
We Zoom our DD and SiL - we even had Christmas dinner with them via Zoom.

Whatsapp & Messenger for me from my older DGCs and a video call on Saturdays from my GGD when she tells me what she has done in Nursery during the week.

I’ve done a couple of treasure hunts and scavenger hunts for my DGS for them to do with their cousins over Zoom, having got their parents to lay a trail of clues/prizes in their homes beforehand. They went down well.

We set up subscriptions for comics so they’d have something delivered every week.

For Valentine’s Day, we’re sending each family a selection of marshmallows with toasting kits. We’ve saved some for us.

WhatsApp for me too and FB and mobile chats sometimes. Thank goodness for the internet.

Wattsapp, zoom and calls.
Family quizzes on zoom. Sending small surprise gifts.
With 5 year old Grandson, his Mummy has to follow him around as he likes to show us his toys and other things around the house.

Zoom, FB and messenger for me, plus telephone when required

Yup, WhatsApp’s been a real gift. Especially sending pictures and videos.

All my grandchildren are young adults now. We keep in touch mainly on WhatsApp.